


The killing game

by NYWCgirl



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen, Hunters & Hunting, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Non-Consensual Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-08 10:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5493692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is someone that has been plotting his revenge for a long time…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kanarek13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kanarek13/gifts).



> Written to fill the ´Nagorno-Karabakh´ square on my gen bingo card. And it would have served as a fandom stocking filler for Kanarek13 who made the art that inspired this story. But as Kanarek13 didn´t get a stocking this year, I publish it as a small Christmas gift.
> 
> Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is mostly mountainous and forested.

“Run, Peter!” Neal cried out.

Peter sprinted through the tall grass and bushes. The leaves and branches slashed at their faces but both men were too occupied to run for their lives that they didn´t feel it.

Peter was glad he was in good condition; he always ran whenever he could, with Satchmo, just on his own, so for a man his age, he was in good shape. He wasn´t worried about Neal, a life of running had made him a natural agile being.

Thorns tore at their legs and Peter´s feet got tangled up in some berry bushes. Neal in his speed, ran past Peter before he could stop himself. Peter stumbled back up and started running again.

“Keep going!” he shouted. He could hear the men behind them; they were closing in on them, which wasn´t difficult, considering they drove quads. He was glad he didn´t hear the dogs anymore, they must have been called off.

Peter turned around to see how far the hunters were behind them, when he felt something hitting his left arm. The combination of the impact and his speed pulled him to the ground.

He must have cried out, because he could see Neal turning around and coming back. He wanted to shout to Neal to keep going, but nothing came out of his mouth. The last thing Peter saw, was Neal getting hit as well. He never felt Neal falling on top of him.

 

* * *

_Three days earlier_

Neal and Peter were in the final stages of their undercover operation. They went in as two business partners interested in buying some black diamonds. The Russians they were meeting didn´t have a violent reputation, so the team had been fairly confident they could make the arrest peacefully. Therefore, Peter decided to have the van wait for them approximately two blocks away. There was no need to alarm the people they were going to meet.

Both men entered the warehouse convinced that this was going to be a piece of cake. Their contact Boris was a friendly guy, and he was already there to greet them. He was alone and an infrared reading of the warehouse had revealed the same, there were no other persons hidden away somewhere in the building.

“Dobroye utro, Boris.” ( _Good morning_ )

“Dobro pozhalovat, George,… Paul” ( _welcome_ )

“Do you have the rocks with you?.” Neal asked.

“Did you bring my money?”

Neal showed him the briefcase he brought and placed it on the table, before opening it.

“You want to count it?”

“Nah.” Boris shook his head.

The hairs in Peter´s neck came up, something wasn´t right. But he was distracted when Boris took the black velvet pouch from his pocket. They needed to see the goods before they could make an arrest.

When Boris opened the pouch, several large diamonds appeared.

“Want to check them?”

“Don´t mind if I do.” Neal said with a million dollar smile.

Neal took his jeweler´s lens and started inspecting one of the diamonds. Peter was keeping an eye on Boris and Neal was studying the diamond, so they didn´t notice the gas until it was too late. The three men went down without a word.

The gate opened and a van drove in, three men jumped out and dragged the unconscious men into the vehicle and drove off. They kept to the speed limit and made their way to New Jersey to a private airstrip. When the van stopped, Peter groaned. He felt dizzy and confused, what had happened? When he moved, he was held down and before he could react, he could feel a pinch in his arm and everything went black again.

Before they were carried on board, Neal was also sedated, to make sure both men wouldn´t wake up during their trip.

 

* * *

 

Peter was the first to wake up, he was slightly disoriented, but felt relatively OK, a slight headache, but not too bad. He studied his surroundings and realized they were lying in a stable, on a bunch of hay. Peter rolled over until he was on his hands and knees and crawled towards Neal, who was still unconscious.

“Neal?”

When Peter didn´t get a response, he shook Neal.

“Wha?”

“Neal, come on, you need to wake up.”

“What happened?” Neal groaned.

“I don´t know. But it can´t be good.”

“What is that smell?”

“It´s hay, horse shit. We are being held in a stable.”

Neal sat up and clutched his head. Peter finally found the courage to get up and then helped Neal stand up. He wavered for a moment, but almost immediately started looking for a way out. When they heard people approaching, they stopped and faced the door, listening.

“They are talking Russian.” Neal whispered.

The door to the stable was opened.

“Khorosho, ty prosnulsya” ( _Good, you are awake)_

Peter stared at the man, he was clearly speaking Russian, but he didn´t speak the language at all. Luckily, Neal did, and he translated.

“Chto ty khochesh?” _(What do you want?)_ Neal shot back.

The man turned to one of the others and said “Pereyti nayti bossa” _(Go get the boss)_.

The two men that stayed behind were armed so Peter and Neal decided to wait and see what was going to happen next.

But what happened next was not what either man had expected.

The man who entered the stable was no other than Sergei.

“Remember me, agent Burke?” Sergei smiled a predatory smile.

“Of course, I do.”

“I told you to remember my face. I am glad you did.”

“What do you want?” Peter´s voice was firmer that Neal would have given him under the circumstances.

“Hmm… let me think. Oh, that is right. I want payback for the time I spend in prison, for the lost of my beloved Katya. She was such a talented girl…”

“What did you do to her?” Neal exclaimed.

“She had an unfortunate accident during training, but she is very happy as a housewife… with her abusive husband.” Sergei gave a cruel chuckle. “We Russian men don´t like our women mouthy…She will learn.”

Neal’s blood boiled hearing Sergei talk about Katya in such a fashion.

“Neal, don´t do anything stupid.” Peter said while holding his arm.

“OK, so you want revenge. You want to kill us.” Neal spat out.

“Yes, mister Caffrey, I want you to die, but not right know. I guess you Americans have a saying for this… Revenge is a dish best served cold. Well, I have waited and now my time has come. Your colleagues are still looking for you in New York, so they don´t have a clue.”

“Just tell us what you have planned, OK?” Neal said impatiently and with a bored face.

“You are on a private domain, as it is autumn, we Russians like to hunt. I guess you see where this is going.”

Sergei turned around and left the stable.

“Osvobodit ikh i poluchit sobak iz” ( _Release them and let the dogs out.)_

Peter and Neal were grabbed while two other men held them at gun point. They were pulled out of the stable and out to the yard and released.

“Bezhat, krolikov, bezhat.” _(Run, rabit, run)_ One of the man shouted.

“Run, Peter.”

Neal wanted to turn around, but Peter pulled him towards him.

“We need to get to a road, Neal, it is our only change. Let´s go.”

Peter started running and heard Neal doing the same.

“Stop Peter.” Neal shouted after a while.

“What?”

“That fence you are going for, it is electrified, Sergei would never make it this easy. I have a suspicion this isn´t the first time they organized a hunt like this.

“OK, But they have dogs, so we can´t go to ground and wait it out.”

“No, we need water, to throw our scent. They kept our jackets, probably as a scent article.”

Both men started running again, but they weren´t making the progress they had hoped. The shrubberies and bushes kept them from running at full speed.

At one point they heard the howling of the dogs and they started running in earnest. Not knowing where to run to, Peter quickly had a feeling that they were running in circles. But as by miracle, they reached a small stream, so they ran through the water. The only problem was that it slowed them down considerably. They both slipped and fell a couple of times.

Peter stopped and tried to get his breathing under control.

“I need a breather.”

“Peter, we don´t have time, we…”

The sound of quads made Neal turn around. They were here already…

“Run, Peter” …

 

* * *

 

_Present_

Sergei walked up to the unconscious men and looked down on them. Then he turned to the man next to him.

“Wound one of them and bring them to another part of the forest, let´s see how long they will last.”

 

_To be continued…?_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

“You took care of them?”

“Yeah, I wounded the tall one.”

“Not too bad, I hope, I want to enjoy the hunt, it is no use if he can´t run.”

“No, I just gave him a small nick… with a rusty blade, it will infect soon.”

Sergei smiled, that was even better than he would have thought off. Leave it up to Vlad to come up with details like this.

“Well done. Let´s go get some dinner, they aren´t going anywhere tonight.”

 

 

* * *

 

Neal was staring at the sky. He noticed that it was getting dark. Wait, what was he doing under the open sky? He turned his head and saw Peter lying on his side next to him. Suddenly he remembered.

The hunt…

“Peter?”

Peter didn´t move.

Right, they had been shot with something, probably tranquilizer darts, as they were not dead yet and also not wounded judging by the lack of pain and discomfort. Neal check Peter over, but apart from some smaller cuts and bruises, he couldn´t find anything.

It was getting dark, so they should look for shelter. He couldn´t hear any dogs or people, so it was fair to assume that Sergei had left them out in the wild and had retreated to the house for the night. It was also getting cold, especially since they only wore a sweater.

He slowly got up and steadied himself when a wave of dizziness hit him. Breathe Neal, you are just fine, if you can find shelter. Neal was hesitant, would he leave Peter and see if he could find somewhere to spend the night or try to wake up Peter. He choice for the last option.

“Peter, come on, you need to wake up.”

He slapped Peter in the face, which resulted in Peter scrunching his face.

“That is it, open your eyes.”

Peter obeyed and slowly opened his eyes.

“What happened?”

“I guess we were shot with a tranquilizer gun. Sergei wants to play.”

“It doesn´t feel like playing.”

“No, but it is better than being dead, so, come on, we need to find shelter for the night. I´m not sure where we are, but it don’t want to find out what indigenous animals roam these woods at night.”

“We should get out of here.”

“I agree, but since we don´t know where we are, I guess it would not be wise to walk in the dark.”

“No, you are right, but at least until it gets darker we should move.”

Neal helped Peter up and they started walking. Neal had seen some rocks and hills, so they figured that would make a good hiding spot and their best chance to see hunters coming towards them. When an hour later they sat down, Peter was pale and breathing heavily.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, hungry and thirsty, but OK, all things considering.”

“Yeah, we need to find water.”

Neal told Peter to stay put and he walked to see if he could find anything to drink. He found some berries and stuffed as much as he could in his mouth and then started plucking them and placing them in his sweater, before making his way back towards Peter.

Peter in the meantime had stacked branches against a rock and leaves on the ground to provide some shelter from the cold ground.

“Well, it is not the Hilton, but I like what you did with the place.” Neal joked, when he saw what Peter had built. “Didn’t find any water, but something second best.” He showed the berries.

“Take them, I had my share at the bush, I brought these for you.”

“Thanks Neal.” Peter Took the berries and quickly ate them.

“Let´s get some sleep, we need to be on our feet as quickly as possible, but we also need to rest.”

Neal crawled inside the makeshift shelter and Peter followed him. He scooted closed to Neal until they were spooning each other. Before Neal could say anything, Peter spoke up.

“We need to conserve body heat.”

“Of course we do.” Neal smirked.

However, they were out like a light, the combination of lingering drugs and exhaustion pulling them down almost immediately.

 

* * *

 

Peter woke because of howling. It took him a moment to figure out where he was and what he was hearing.

Wolves…

 

But by the sound of it, they were far away. It was almost dawn, so he shook Neal, who startled awake.

“We need to get going.”

“Yeah. Are you Ok?”

“Yeah, why.”

“You look flushed.”

Neal extended his hand to feel Peter´s forehead.

“You are a bit warm. Warmer than you should be.”

“I´m fine, we need to get going.”

Peter started walking and Neal followed. With no way to know where they needed to go, it seemed like a desperate plan.

“How will we prevent from walking in circles?”

“We will keep going north, that way we are sure we are not walking around.”

“How do we know where the north is?”

“Moss grows on the north side of the tree, so as long as we walk away from the moss, we are heading north.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They walked what seemed for hours and Peter started looking flushed, which was odd as it was cold. His hair line was wet from sweat.

“Peter? Are you feeling alright? You seem flushed. I suspect you´re running a fever.”

“Well, there is nothing that we can do about it, is there?”

“No, but we should know where it came from.”

Peter sighed and stopped walking. Neal checked the cuts he knew off and one seemed more infected than the others.

“I was right, it is one of the cuts that got infected. It isn´t bleeding, but it is red and swollen, there is little I can do.”

“Told you so.”

“We really need to find water.”

At that moment, they heard the dogs. The both stood still to listen where the barking came from. It was coming closer rather quickly, so Peter started running and Neal quickly followed. They didn´t notice that the barking stopped. The adrenaline kept them going until Peter tripped. Neal stopped and knelt next to Peter.

“Are you alright?”

“No, I´m thirsty and hungry and hot.”

“The infection is getting worse, the cut is red and swollen. Your fever is getting worse.”

“We should find a hiding place.”

“I agree, we will find you a hiding spot and then I will try to find a way out.”

When Peter didn´t try to change Neal´s plan, Neal realized Peter was feeling much worse than he was admitting. Neal looked for a hiding spot in a stack of fallen trees. In between the logs, Peter would be safe from animals and he was fairly protected from the elements. Neal left Peter in search for something to eat before he would look for an escape.

He quickly found more berries, it was better than nothing. Again he ate first and then took the rest to Peter, who had fallen asleep. Neal thought it better to let him sleep as Peter needed his strength. He took a large leaf and placed the berries on top of it. He needed to find a way out of these woods, but he was also tired, maybe if he just slept a bit with Peter. He took the small spot behind Peter´s back and within minutes he conked out.

When he heard a branch snap, his eyes snapped open and Neal held his breath. He listened to his surroundings to figure out whether it was an animal or Sergei and his hunters. He heartrate sped up when he realized what he was hearing, were hushed voices speaking Russian, he was certain it was Sergei. He needed to get away, he needed to make sure they didn´t find Peter. He needed to think, if he would take Peter with him, they would have them within minutes. He needed a plan, and fast. Peter was in no shape to escape a couple of hunters.

Neal heard that they were closing in on them. He needed to lure them away from Peter, so he quietly moved away. When he thought he was far enough, he started running again. He wasn´t paying attention to where he was going , more listening if they were following him. When suddenly…

Pain shot through his leg and he couldn´t withhold a scream. Because of his speed, he was pulled down and hit the ground hard. He stayed down, trying to figure out what had happened. When he looked at his foot, he felt a wave of nausea gulf over him. His foot was pinched in a trap, not a bear trap, it was smaller, but it felt as bad. He was glad it was a smaller trap, if it had been a bear trap, it would probably have snapped his foot of or at least broken his leg. He could see the steal teeth that were stuck in his flesh, which was bleeding profusely. This was not good. It would give him away to the dogs and whatever predators that lived in these woods. And it decreased their ability to escape drastically.

First things first, he needed to get the trap off and stop the bleeding. He scooted over towards the trap that was fixed with a chain to a pin in the ground. He then pushed with all his might against the handles, but it didn´t open. He needed to get up and use his other foot. He moaned when he pushed himself up. The pain was so overwhelming that he started gaging, but as he hadn´t eaten anything recently, nothing came out. He pulled in larges gulps of air through his nose and pushed down the feeling. OK, he was up, now he needed to get the trap off. He put his foot on one handle and pushed with both his hands on the other side. The gosling of the trap to his injured foot was excruciating, but didn´t open. The pain was so overwhelming that he just blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

When Peter heard the scream, he jolted upright.

“Neal?”

Peter pushed himself up and then remembered where he was, he needed to be careful, maybe Neal had been grabbed by Sergei. He cautiously looked out of their hiding place and saw two men and what looked like a woman. The two men ran towards the scream and the woman turned towards him. Peter ducted back down hoping that she hadn´t spotted him. Unfortunately, she did, and walked towards him.

“Peter?”

It took a moment for Peter´s fevered brain to recognize the voice.

“Katya?”

“Yes, it is me, I am here to get you out of here.”

“How?”

“My husband works for Sergei and told me about two Americans that were brought here. It could only be you. Are you alright?”

“I´m fine.”

“You don´t look fine, you look like you are running a fever.”

“Yeah, I have this wound that seemed to be infected.”

“Vlad did it.”

“What?”

“One of Sergei´s men, likes to wound his victims, just a small cut that gets infected, then he sees how long they last.”

“Let´s go, we need to get to the quads, before Sergei finds out we are here.”

Katya helped Peter up and together they slowly made their way to the quads, there were two of them. By the time Katya had Peter on the quad, the two men came towards them carrying Neal who was unconscious.

“What happened?”

“He stepped in a trap. He was lucky though, it was a wolf trap, but I guess it still broke the bone. I´m not sure. He is losing blood, so we will dress the wound and then we need to get out of here.”

One of the men quickly put a pressure bandage around Neal´s leg and lifted him behind the other man who took his position on the quad. Katya sat behind him so she could keep him upright. Within minutes they made their way to a place where the fence had been taken down. But Peter was too tired and sick to notice that they had been this close to the fence. The trip happened in a blur. He needed all his strength to keep sitting upright and to hold on to the man in front of him.

When they finally arrived at a cabin, Peter let out a groan and could feel he was about to crash. But his concern for Neal kept him going.

“Are we safe here?”

“I wouldn´t say safe, but it will do for now. We will tend to your injuries and then we will need to contact your people to recover you.”

“How is Neal doing?”

“Not so good, he is still losing blood, we need a doctor, the bone is definitely broken, and it will probably not be a clean break. We will stabilize it and get on our way to the city.”

“Davayte yego v mashinu.” _(Let´s get him into the car)_ One of the men said.

“Da.”

Katya handed Peter two pills.

“Take these, they will bring down the fever.” Katya placed them in Peter´s hand and handed him a bottle of water which he greedily drank.

Now that he was warm and relatively safe, Peter could feel his aches. His head was throbbing and he could feel sleep pulling on him. Peter´s attention snapped back to Neal when he heard him moan. Even unconscious, the pain must be agonizing, the way Neal´s face was contorted. Peter slowly got up and walked over to where they had placed Neal on a table. Peter placed his hand on top of Neal´s chest.

“Neal, it is Ok, you are hurt, but we are here to help You are safe now. Just rest.”

All of a sudden, Neal´s eyes snapped open. His face immediately scrunched up and his face drained off all color.

“Neal, breathe, just take slow deep breaths, we are taking you to hospital.”

“It hurts, I…”

“We know, try to relax.”

“Can´t we give him something?”

“Better not, he will almost certainly need surgery.”

“Neal, we are going to stabilize the break and then we are out of here.”

One of the men stood behind Neal to keep him still, the other man held his good leg. Katya took two wooden planks that she lined with bandages and then pressed them against Neal´s bandaged leg. Neal screamed and wanted to get up, but the man standing behind him, prevented it.

Neal squeezed Peter´s hand with a force, Peter would have thought impossible; He would have bruises for sure.

Without warning, Neal went completely limp. Peter looked up at Katya.

“It´s OK, he just passed out, it is for the better. It will make the journey more comfortable for him.” She quickly finished bandaging the leg and the two men picked Neal up and placed him on a mattress in the back of an old Unimog. Peter slowly made his way over to the back as well and placed himself next to Neal and they were off. The rocking of the vehicle in combination with the pills and adrenaline crash made that he was out pretty quickly.

Katya hoped that they would at least make it to the city before Sergei would notice that his victims had escaped.

 

* * *

 

But it didn´t take Sergei long to find out, his men had heard the quads driving, and had investigated. They reported that two men and a woman had taken the two Americans with them.

Sergei was furious… Katya.

It could only be her. He called Katya´s husband and told him to come over. In the meantime he told his men to find out where they had taken the Americans.

When Boris stepped out of his car, Sergei walked out to meet him.

“Sergei, tovarishch.” ( _comrade)_

Sergei stepped towards him, pulled his revolver and shot him point blank. He then walked to his car and drove towards Katya´s home.

 

* * *

 

The jostling of the Unimog over the badly maintained roads woke Peter. He was feeling ill, the pain was getting worse and if seemed to nestle deep inside his leg. Peter pulled up his pant leg and gasped when he saw the red streaks extending from the wound. This was definitely not good. He was glad they were on their way to hospital, if they would be in the woods, they wouldn´t have survived, that was for sure. Peter thought about El and Satchmo. Would they make it out of here? He mentally slapped himself, he needed to think positive, of course they would make it.

He glanced over to Neal and could see that Neal was regaining consciousness. He was getting restless and started moaning. When the moaning increased and Neal´s eyelids started fluttering, Peter tried to reassure him.

“Neal, you’re going to be fine. We are on our way to hospital. Neal?”

“Wha? Hppned?”

“It´s OK, we will talk about it later. Try to rest, I don´t know how much longer it will be.”

When the truck drove through a bigger pothole, Neal tried to choke down his scream, but failed miserable.

“My leg hurts.”

“It is broken and we are on our way to hospital.”

“Never hurt this much before.”

“You broke it before?”

“Yeah. Oh God, … please make it stop.”

“I can´t. We need to get going and the roads are in bad shape.”

“I´m going to be sick.”

“Try to breathe through it, you have nothing in your stomach and it will hurt if you get sick now.”

Neal tried to comply with Peter´s suggestion, but the pain was overwhelming and he couldn´t focus on his breathing; The pain was becoming all consuming.

Peter could see Neal doing is best to comply but all color had drained from his face. Now that he looked closer, he could see that his fingernails were getting a bluish tint. Now that Peter examined Neal closer, he could see the sweat forming in his hairline.

“Cold.” Neal shivered.

Peter pulled up the blanket and tucked it around Neal. Katya had followed the conversation between the two men and Peter could see that she was worried. She checked the bandages and told the men to drive faster. She also place her coat on top of Neal.

“It´s OK, Neal, we are getting you out of here.”

“Who are you?”

Peter looked worried now, it wasn´t like Neal to not recognize someone. He was going into shock. He could only hope they were close. Katya carefully lifted Neal´s legs and stuffed a log underneath them so they were elevated.

“We are almost there, it is a military basis, we didn´t dare go to a civilian hospital, Sergei is too influential.”

“Will they help us?”

“Anatoly is special forces, he will get you guys onto the base.”

Peters stared at Neal. Special forces, hunters…how had this happen?

Suddenly the truck sped up and Peter could hear a car accelerating. This was not good, it could only be Sergei. When he heard gunshots, he ducted instinctively over Neal to protect him. While he was lying over Neal, he could see that Neal was conscious, but no longer tracking what was happening. He heard the gunfire being returned, probably Anatoly making good on his special forces training.

When a bullet pierced the tail gate, his heart rate sped up. They bad guys were gaining distance, this was not good, luckily they hadn´t hit anybody, but they were getting to close for comfort.

Suddenly the truck came to a hard stop and Peter only now noticed that the gunshots had ceased. It was then that he realized that Neal had lost consciousness again.

The back was pulled open and Peter took a defense stance, thinking that Sergei had stopped the truck, but before him stood a military medical team.

“Help my friend.”

“Pozvol'te nam pomoch'” _(Let us help)_ One of the medical staff members said. Peter looked at Katya who nodded. “Let them help Neal.”

Peter released his grip on Neal, and suddenly there was a flurry of activity. Two people climbing up in the back of the truck and lifted Neal onto a gurney. Neal made a sound that wasn´t human anymore and Peter wanted to follow to reassure him. Katya tried to stop him, but the moment he jumped from the truck, his knees buckled and his vision greyed out. It took him all his will power to stay conscious. He could hear Kathy call out to someone and within seconds, he was lifted as well and on his way inside the building.

People asked him question, but he didn´t understand them. He was getting agitated, until suddenly Katya stood next to him.

“Katya, how is Neal?”

“I don´t know, he was taken away into surgery. I will ask if they can tell me his status.”

“Please, ask, I need to know.”

“I will be right back.”

Peter let his head slump back onto the pillow and sighed, he felt bushed, his whole body ached and now that he was safe and being taken care for, he noticed how hungry he was. When his stomach growled, a nurse took pity in him and after she placed an IV, she left, only to come back with a cup filled with what looked like yoghurt.

“Matsoni” The nurse said and handed him a spoon.

Peter was too hungry to be fussy, so he spooned the cup up, it turned out to be a yoghurt like substance. After he finished, his eyelids were getting heavy and the combination of warmth, food and comfort made him doze off before he could ask about Neal.

 

* * *

 

When Peter woke, he was staring at a white ceiling. He turned his head and saw he was in a room with several other men who were being treated.

“Rad videt' vas prosnulsya.” _(Good to see you awake)_ The man next to him said.

Peter gave him a tired smile.

“I´m sorry, I don´t speak Russian.”

“Oh, you are American?”

“Yes, where am I?”

“You are at the 102nd Military Base.”

“And where are they located?”

“You don´t know? You are in [Gyumri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyumri), [Armenia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia).”

Peter looked surprised.

“You didn´t know?”

“No…”

“Can you ask the staff where the woman is that was with me?”

“Sure. By the way, my name is Vladislav.”

“Peter.”

A nurse entered the ward and walked up to Peter, taking his vitals while talking to him.

“On ne govorit po-russki” ( _He doens´t speak Russian)_

The nurse said something back to Vladislav and left.

“She is getting someone that speaks English.”

“Thanks.”

Katya came into the room.

“Hi Peter, how are you feeling?”

“Better, what is the verdict?”

“A wound infection, but nothing to be worried about. They are giving you antibiotics.” She pointed at the IV, where several bags were hanging. “Some dehydration, low blood sugar, cuts and bruises, nothing that can´t be healed.”

“Anything on Neal?”

“They are still operating. The bones splintered and need to be stabilized. They are also worried for wound infection. They told me they are almost done. Neal will then go to recovery. Once he is in a room, we can see him, but that will take some time, so get some rest while the IV´s finish.

“Sounds like a good idea.”

Peter let his eyes close, but he suddenly opened them again.

El!

“I should call my wife to tell her we are OK.

“Of course. I will see if I can get a phone in here”

“Thanks.”

Peter laid back and dozed a bit, listening to the hustle and bustle of the hospital.

 

* * *

 

Neal fought his way back into awareness. He felt sluggish, tired and worn. What had happened? He felt like he had been sleeping for a long time. His eyelids seemed to have been glued together. He tried to open his eyes, but for some reason his body didn´t obey his brain. Now had he thought about it. He felt drugged. Yeah, definitely drugged.

Why would he be drugged, he didn´t do drugs…

The memory hit him like a freight train. Sergei… Sergei had drugged them to hunt them. He needed to get away. He needed to locate Peter. But he couldn´t open his eyes, let alone move.

Peter…

He needed Peter.

“P’ter…” he whispered.

Somebody must have noticed that he was waking up, because he heard someone talking to him in a soothing tone and a hand was placed on his arm. He felt a warmth spread through his body before everything went black again.

 

* * *

 

Peter had been able to call Elizabeth and reassured her they were OK. He also called Diana and she would contact the American embassy to make sure they would be able to return, the moment, they were cleared for travelling.

By the time he had made the necessary calls, he was exhausted and ready to nap again, when Tanya walked up to his bed.

“Peter, we can see Neal now.”

Peter tried to get out of bed.

“Wait, a nurse will bring in a wheelchair, it will be easier.”

“Thank you.”

When an orderly came in, and helped Peter in the chair, they walked to another corridor. They stopped in front of a door and Peter held his breath. He was pushed inside and there was Neal, he was hooked up to several IV´s, similar to the one he was attached to. Neal´s leg was elevated and under what looked like a tent.

Peter gestured to be pushed closer. Once he was able to, he took Neal´s hand in his own.

“Neal?”

“I´m sorry, mister Burke, but mister Caffrey is still sedated. He woke up in recovery and then again here in the room, but he panicked and we thought it best to give him a mild sedative.”

“Can you tell me the diagnosis, doctor…?”

“I am sorry, my name is doctor Matvei. Mister Caffrey has suffered a fracture of both Tibia and Fibula. The fracture was severe and needed surgery to realign and fix it. I used plates and screws which will be left in place as long as they don´t become a problem. Because of the surgical wound, we can´t put plaster around the leg, so for now, we leave it as it is, so the wound can heal.”

“Will there be lasting effects?”

“We need to see how the leg heals. It should heal without problems, but I was informed that the fracture was caused by a wolf trap, they are not the most hygienic, so we have mister Caffrey on strong antibiotics. As we didn´t know if he is up to date with his Tetanus, we also administered a new booster shot.”

“Thank you. Can I stay until he wakes up?”

“I will ask the orderlies, to transfer your bed into this room. I guess it will be more comfortable if you can talk to each other.”

“That would be fantastic. Thank you.”

“No problem, if that is all, I need to see other patients.”

“Of course.”

Peter stayed seated next to Neal, until two orderlies came in with his bed. They transferred him quickly and efficiently.

About an hour later, Neal started stirring. A low moan escaped him and Peter jolted awake. He looked around and his attention was drawn to Neal whose face was contorted in pain.

Peter pushed the call button.

“Neal?”

The moaning got worse, he had to be in considerable pain. Peter swore that he couldn´t reach Neal, so he slowly tried to get out of bed.

“Can you open your eyes? You´re safe, but try not to move.”

“P…”

“Welcome back, Neal. Are you in a lot of pain?”

He just nodded.

A nurse came in and smiled at Neal.

“Welcome, you OK?”

She checked Neal´s vitals and adjusted the IV´s drip. She also injected something and Peter could see, Neal relax more.

“I guess she just upped your pain medication.”

“Feels good.”

“Rest Neal, you need to heal.”

Neal just nodded again. He slowly lost his fight with sleep and soon Peter could hear his even breaths. He let himself nod off as well, only to be wakened by noise in the corridor. They were distributing food. The nurse placed two trays on the side tables and Peter checked out the contents of his tray. It didn´t look familiar and when the nurse entered that spoke a bit of English, Peter asked her what today´s meal was.

“Shchi soup and cutlets with buckwheat”

Not something he would have chosen, but it tasted surprisingly good. He ate everything and regretted that the portions hadn´t been larger. It was obvious his body was till craving food. He eyed Neal´s tray, wondering what he was having for dinner. The nurse gently woke Neal.

“Prosnut'sya.” ( _Wake up)_

Neal’s breathing picked up and Peter immediately noticed the panic that gripped Neal.

“Neal, you’re safe”

“Peter?”

“Yes, it´s me, we are in the hospital. A Russian hospital so there is no need to panic every time hear a Russian voice.”

Neal slowly opened his eyes, while the nurse checked everything.

“You, eat.” She said to Neal.

She helped him sit up a bit straighter by placing an extra pillow behind him. She lifted the lid of the food tray and it revealed the same soup as Peter had. She spoon fed Neal when he didn´t make any attempt to eat himself.

Neal started to nod off by the end of the soup. It was clear he was still weak.

“idti spat'” (Go to sleep)

“ya budu” _(I will)_ Neal slurred while his eyes were drifting shut.

Peter smiled, leave it up to Neal…

He was getting bored real quick, as there was no television and the newspaper someone brought in was in Russian… So Peter was relieved when their doctor came in.

“How are you doing, mister Burke?”

“Fine, still a bit hungry, but better.”

“I will ask the staff to bring you something. Your vitals are good. The infection is retreating, but we want to keep you on an antibiotic drip.”

“And how is mister Caffrey?”

“Weak, he sleeps a lot.”

“That is good, his body had quite the shock, let me check the wound.”

The doctor took the little tent of Neal´s leg and exposed the wound. Peter just looked at it in horror. Neal´s lower leg was black and blue and there was a deep jagged scar.

“It is not as bad as it looks. It will heal alright. Bearing any complications, he will have full use of the leg.”

While the doctor inspected the wound, Neal moaned and woke up, again completely disoriented. Peter and the doctor reassured him everything was OK.

“Is it normal that he wakes up confused?”

“Yes, his body was quiet traumatized by what happened and the anesthesia will also do that to you. As he gets stronger, it will get better.”

While the doctor covered his leg again, Neal was already dozing.

 

* * *

 

It turned out that getting two injured Americans out of Russia without passports was more difficult than expected, but within a week, Neal was cleared to leave the hospital as long as it was on a medical repatriation and he was transported horizontally. Peter had also asked to arrange to get Katya out of the country as well, as she was a witness to their kidnapping and a victim. She wouldn´t be safe if she stayed here.

Diana flew over together with Jones, they were carrying the official documentation from the Russian Embassy in New York, that both men had been kidnapped and brought here against their wishes. They were accompanied by a doctor who would take care of them during the flight back.

Diana talked to Neal, explaining how they were going to bring them back. He was still not himself and doped up on pain killers, so while they were talking he just fell asleep. It made Diana wanting to take care of him, all her motherly instincts coming to the surface.

Diana and Jones had gotten permission to carry a weapon on foreign soil, as they still hadn´t been able to find Sergei. Local police had searched his estate, but he wasn´t there. They had however found the body of Katya´s husband.

With her diplomatic contacts, Diana had made sure they had an armored vehicle that could transport Neal laying down. He was still not up to sitting.

The doctor had introduced himself as Frank Friedman. He was a doctor that traveled to retrieve injured people around the world and bring them back home safely. He explained Neal and Peter how the trip would go.

They said their goodbyes in the hospital to the staff while Frank signed them out and was handed medication for the journey.

“Proshchay , golubyye glaza” ( _Goodbye, blue eyes_ ) the nurse smiled.

“Uvidimsya!” ( _see you_ ) Neal smiled back.

They were going home.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Three months later…_ **

 

Neal got out of the Taurus and slowly walked towards the elevator in the parking garage. Peter was still hovering around Neal and it was driving him nuts.

“I got it, Peter.” He snapped irritable.

The cane he was using was a sign that not everything was well, but Neal felt locked up in his apartment and had grabbed the possibility of coming back to work on desk duty. He had been working for about a month now, Peter, Diana or Jones bringing him files at home, but he was ready to be among people again. He had started physical therapy two weeks ago and the doctor had signed off on the desk duty.

“I know, but I don´t want you to trip and hurt yourself.”

“I´m fine. My leg is getting stronger. With the cane, I can manage.”

“I know, I promise to stop hovering.”

Once they arrived at the twenty first floor; Neal hated to admit to himself that he was relieved that he could sit down behind his desk. The leg wound was healed, but the bones were still healing and the doctor had insisted that he should stay off the leg. The hospital had provided a walker, but he quickly had changed it for a fashionable black cane with silver handle that June had bought him. It even had a flask inside. Maybe he was a temporary invalid, but at least he did it with style.

At the moment, Neal had twice a week physical therapy to strengthen his leg. As winter was setting in, sometimes the bone would hurt fiercely and the doctor had explained that this was a common side effect. It could get better with time, could…

Peter had been cleared after a day in observation once they arrived back in New York. The antibiotics had done their work and the infection retreated. The superficial wounds healed and Peter had been cleared for duty after a physical and mental evaluation.

Katya came with us and went into witness protection as soon as she entered the United States. It was clear that Sergei would hunt her down for helping Peter and Neal escape. So Diana had arranged with the department of Foreign affairs that Katya could entere the United Sates again.

Everything felt almost back to normal, they were working again. Peter had found Neal a case that wasn´t some mortgage or medicare fraud. It had been a theft in a local gallery. He had handed Neal all the information about the crime scene and he could almost see Neal´s mind working on solving the case.

By noon, Peter asked the new probie Jeff to get some sandwiches and coffee, so they wouldn´t need to leave the office. With the weather getting worse every day, it was easier on Neal. Peter was really concerned that Neal would step on an ice patch and hurt himself more.

They had a pleasant lunch together, the whole team was glad that they didn´t have to leave the building and continued working on their cases.

Around five, Peter glanced down into the bullpen, when he noticed Neal rubbing his leg. It must be bothering him, so he decided enough was enough and shut down his computer, before walking down towards Neal´s desk.

“Let´s get out of here.”

When he didn´t get any protest, Peter knew he had made the right decision. Neal shut down his computer, took his cane and slowly got up. The walk towards to car seemed to take forever and Peter started doubting if bringing Neal back to the office had been a good idea.

“Stop worrying. I´m fine, the leg just hurt because of the weather. Besides, tomorrow I have to levae early because I have an appointment in the hopsital at three.”

“Sure, no problem. Come, I will drop you of at June´s.”

 

* *  *

 

The next day, Neal was waiting for Peter at the curb and they drove in silence to work. Neal worked on his cases and around eleven, Peter was called out to an inter-departmental meeting. The probie brought lunch for Neal, which they ate together. At two thirty, Neal received a text from June´s driver that he was downstairs to take him to his appointment. Bless June.

He got out in front of the hospital and slowly made his way to the physical therapy space. He changed into something more suitable and started his routine with Eirik, his therapist.

“OK, Neal, we are done for the day. See you again the day after tomorrow; Are you OK?”

Eirik handed Neal his cane and he slowly got up.

“I´m good. See you.”

Neal walked towards the locker room to change. He sat down on the bench and put his cane next to him. He sighed because he knew he had to get up to reach the locker. He should have taken a lower one, but he didn´t, so he got up, balancing on one leg, trying to avoid putting weight on his bad leg without the cane. He had just reached in the locker, when he sensed someone behind him. He turned to look around, but never saw who was behind him, because a sweet smelling rag was pressed against his face and he was held closely to the chest of someone bigger and definitely stronger than him. The attack surprised him and he inhaled before he could stop himself.

 

* *  *

 

By the time Peter was able to leave the meeting it was way past four and by the time he arrived back at the twenty first floor, Neal was not behind his desk. He then remembered that Neal had a physical therapy appointment, so he walked up to his office to finish his paperwork.

When his phone rang, he thought it was El checking whether he would be home for dinner, but to his surprise, it was June.

“Hi June, how are you? Something wrong?

“Neal is gone.”

“What do you mean gone?”

“Frederique picked Neal up at two thirty at the office and brought him to his therapy session. He then went for a coffee, but was back before Neal would finish his session and he waited, but when Neal didn´t show, he went inside to check if Neal needed assistance. The staff checked the locker room and Neal´s locker was closed but not locked. His suit was still inside. Neal would never leave a locker open and walk away.”

“Maybe he was tired from the therapy?”

“You know better than that, Peter. Neal wouldn´t leave in his work out gear.”

Peter took out his phone and opened the app that showed Neal´s tracker. But to his surprise, there was no signal. The system was down and he hadn´t received a warning. Whoever was behind this was influential or inventive.

“I will contact the hospital. I will keep you posted, OK?”

“Thank you.”

Peter disconnected the call and walked out to the balcony. Jones had already left but Diana and Jeff were still behind their desks, so he called them into the conference room and explained what had happened. He asked Diana to take Jeff with her and visit the hospital to watch the security tapes.

When the left the office, he picked up the phone and called Mozzie.

 

* *  *

 

Neal woke with a splitting headache. His stomach rebelled against whatever they had used to knock him out, probably chloroform or ether. He just kept still and tried to get the nausea under control. Once he was sure that he wouldn´t vomit as soon as he moved, he slowly opened his eyes. There was something in his eyes, because something made his eyelids stick together. When he finally managed to open his eyes, he realized he was on a couch in what appeared to be a living room.

He gingerly sat up and winced when pain shot through his leg. They must have been not to gently transporting him. However ‘they’ may be.

Neal studied his surroundings and fear slowly crept in. The interior looked like a scene from a horror movie. There was blood everywhere. When he came to the realization, he glanced down and saw that he too was covered in blood. He studied his hands and saw the blood on them, but now that he studied them, he saw cuts and torn nails. He must have fought.

He needed to think. As long as his captures didn´t know that he was awake he had an advantage. He suddenly realized that the weight of the tracker was still there. Good, Peter would be able to find him that way.

His heart sank, when he pulled up his pants leg and realized the light wasn´t on. They must have found a way to bypass the system.

He scanned the room but there were no windows and only one door. He assumed it would be guarded, they wouldn´t be that stupid to let him alone with a guard. He decided not to wait to see what they had planned for him and check if there really was a guard outside the room.

He got up and staggered a moment, as the headache came back with a vengeance. He then carefully walked up to the door and listened. He heard nothing, so he cautiously tried the knob. Bummer, locked. His headache was getting worse and nausea washed over him. So he gingerly shuffled back to the couch and lay down again.

He must have dozed off, because he started awake due to people talking loudly outside the door. Suddenly there was banging on the door and Neal wanted to get up, but before he managed, the door slammed open.

“Down on the ground, hand across the back of your head, NOW!” a police officer shouted, gun drawn.

Neal did his best to comply and before he knew it, he was restrained. The odd thing was that he was restrained with riot cuffs and not with handcuffs, Neal realized this while he was pulled to his feed by the second officer.

“Why are you arresting me?”

“Neal Caffrey, you are arrested for the attempted murder of special agent Peter Burke.”

“What?... I…”

“You have the right…” the officer Mirandarized Neal, who was still staring in shock at the officer.

“What happened? How is he? Where is he?”

“What happened? You know that better than we do. Look at you. You better pray that he will survive. He should have hit you harder.” The officer pulled him forward and the world started the spin out of control. All color drained from Neal´s face and he felt the word slip away from him.


	5. Chapter 5

When Neal woke up, he felt different. His eye lids weren´t stuck together anymore, when he thought about it, he realized that he felt actually pretty good. The headache was still there, but somewhere in the background. Wherever he was, it was quiet. He opened his eyes and was sort of blinded by the brightness of the room. He groaned and tried to turn to his side, only to find that he was restrained. He lifted his head to study the restraints and realized they were the medical type restraints that you found in hospitals or better, psychiatric wards.

He started struggling, but there was no way he was getting out of these cuffs as his arms were restrained away from his body to a band that ran under the mattress, as were his legs.

He was thinking whether he would start shouting to get someone´s attention or if he would just wait and see what would happen.

It seemed to take forever before someone came into his room.

“How are we doing mister Caffrey?” a burly orderly asked.

“Why am I here?”

“Why do you keep asking that question?”

“What do you mean, keep asking, it is the first time I asked it.”

“Sure, whatever.” The orderly looked annoyed and like he didn´t care. He was clearly not paid enough to care.

“I need to pee.”

“Sure you do.”

“No, really.”

“OK, here let me help you.” The orderly walked out of the room and came back in with a syringe in his hand.

“No, wait, I don´t need to pee that badly. Forget I even mentioned it.” Neal started babbling.

“It´s OK, mister Caffrey, we don´t want to upset you and we want to keep you safe. Give it a minute to work and I will help you to the bathroom.”

“No, really, I don´t want to be injected with whatever is in that syringe, I will be good, I…”

But Neal couldn´t prevent the orderly to tie the tourniquet around his arm. He tapped the vein and when it popped up, he slowly injected whatever was in the syringe. He did it surprisingly gentle. Neal felt the warmth spread into his system and soon he didn´t care about anything.

“Do you still need to pee?”

“Yes.” Neal hummed happily.

“OK, here, let me help you.”

Neal was distracted with the blue butterflies that were fluttering above him. He started humming in appreciation.

“They are nice…”

“What is nice?”

“The butterflies.”

“Yes, they are.” The orderly smiled.

He left the room to get the supplies he needed.

 

* *  *

 

Peter was standing in the conference room, watching the security footage of the hospital. It was clear to everybody involved, that Neal had been taken.

Neal had made his way into the locker room. There was no footage from inside the room for privacy reasons, but as there was only one entrance, they could see two other persons entering the room. They had known of the cameras, because they kept their faces hidden from them. All they could make out was that they were big and dressed as orderlies. The men came back out carrying a gurney with Neal op top of it.

They could follow them until they loaded Neal in an ambulance and drove off.

“The license plates are false and the ambulance was stolen.” Jeff said.

Peter nodded, he hadn´t expected anything less.

“What do we know about the uniforms?”

“Nothing, none have been reported missing at the hospital. I checked whether there have been recent break-ins in laundries, but nothing came up.” Jeff explained.

Peter studied Jeff, he had been right about the probie, he would make a good agent.

So two men kidnapped Neal from the hospital, we have no witnesses, no clues. What about his anklet? Why was the system down and weren´t we informed?”

“That is the question isn´t it? Whoever we are looking for is influential, he knew how to access Neal’s anklet or he found a way into the Marshall´s office. Diana, Jeff, check it out. Jones, you interview people in the hospital, maybe someone remembers someone.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I´m going to check my street contacts.”

“Mozzie…” Diana said smiling.

“Yes, he has been useful before and if it comes to Neal, he is relentless.”

 

* *  *

“Mister Caffrey?”

“Hmmm?”

“Mister Caffrey, are you with us?”

“Wha?”

“Good to have you back with us.”

Neal stared at the man, he was dressed in a white lab coat. He must be a doctor. But why was he in a hospital? Had he been in an accident?

“What happened?”

“What is the last thing you remember?”

Oh, we were going with that routine. Neal could do that. He thought about his last memory. Wait, there was something with police.

“Police officers.”

 “That is right. Good. What else?”

“I was arrested?” Neal said hesitantly.”

“That is correct. You were arrested.”

“Why was I arrested?”

“You don´t remember? You were arrested because you hurt your handler.”

“Peter?” Neal tried to get up of the bed and the doctor jumped back.

“What is wrong with Peter?”

“Calm down Neal. I need you to calm down otherwise I need to sedate you.”

“No, I´ll calm down.” Neal said anxiously.

“What did I do to Peter?”

“I was told by police that you assaulted your handler.”

“Is he OK?”

“Do you mean he will survive?”

Neal got dizzy. Survive, what had he down that they were not sure Peter would survive?

“Neal, stay with me, breath.” The doctor said in a commanding tone.

“Huh?”

“You are hyperventilating. Calm down.”

“What did I do to Peter?”

“You don´t remember?”

“No, I…” Neal thought about it, but for some reason he was pulling a blank.

“Sometimes traumatic experiences are blocked from ones memory.”

“I need to know, what did I do to Peter. Is he alright?”

“We will know if he wakes up.”

“If?”

“Last I heard he was still in a coma.”

“I don´t believe you. I wouldn´t hurt Peter.”

“You don´t have to believe me. The police say they have a water tight case.”

“Then why am I here and not in prison?”

“Well, for one, you pasted out when you were arrested, probably to the head wound you had. Agent Burke got in a good blow.”

“But why am I on the psychiatric ward?”

“We need to determine whether you are fit to stand trial.”

“I didn´t do it. Someone framed me. I would never hurt Peter.” Neal started to get agitated again.

“Calm down, it is OK, we will keep you here for the time being. Now rest.”

“No, I need to see Peter. I want to talk to Elizabeth Burke.”

“You can´t see Peter and Elizabeth Burke doesn´t want to see you.”

“I want to talk to my lawyer.”

“I will see what I can do. Rest, I will be back.”

The doctor left the room and left Neal alone with his thoughts. Neal started digging in his memory to find out what he could have done to Peter and what had could have led to the altercation.

 He kept spitting in his brain, but nothing came up. He just couldn´t remember. Finally he just let himself drift away.

 

* *  *

 

“You got Neal kidnapped? He was getting therapy in a busy city hospital. How could he be taken against his will, without leaving any evidence?”

“Whoever did it, is a professional.”

“They always are. OK, let me see what I can find out.”

“Thanks, Mozzie.”

“Don´t thank me, suit, just find him.”

Mozzie left the park and Peter stared at him until he was out of his line of sight. He needed to think. His team was tracing all possible leads. There was only one thing he wanted to check out.

 

* *  *

 

The next day, Neal had been woken by staff and he had been given breakfast in his room. With it was a plastic cup with three pills in it.

“What are those?”

“I don´t know, you have to ask the doctor.”

 “I don´t want them.”

“No problem.”

The orderly left and came back with the dreaded syringe.

“Hey, no need to go into such drastic measures. I will take them.”

“Sure, now be a nice boy and stay still.”

“No, please, come on, I don´t need this. I´m calm. I will take the pills.”

But Neal´s pleading didn´t help, and whatever was injected worked fast. Neal´s eyes glazed over. He didn´t notice the sinister smile of the orderly.

“Oh, the butterflies are back.” He tried to reach for them. The orderly left Neal alone.

After some time, Neal calmed down again and the doctor entered his room. He undid the restraints and asked Neal to sit at the table. He handed Neal a plastic bottle of water.

“Hi Neal, are you with me?”

“Hum, good I guess.” Neal nodded his head.

“Do you member what you did to Peter Burke?”

“I didn´t do nothing to him.” Neal said softly.

“Well, the police brought me some pictures I want you to look at.”

The doctor placed the folder between them so Neal could see what was inside, and the doctor opened it, revealing the first picture. Neal blanched and started gagging. He stared in horror at the picture. The picture revealed Peter´s car, the inside looked like it had been used as a prop for a slasher movie. The doctor closed the folder.

“Now do you remember?”

“No, I didn´t do this, I…

“Neal, your bloody fingerprints were found all over the car. You finger prints are on the tire iron.”

“I…”

“What is the matter, Neal?”

“I don´t feel well.”

“How did you think Peter felt?”

“No, I would never hurt him. You are making this up.”

“I´m afraid I´m not.”

Neal jumped up.

“I didn´t hurt Peter, somebody is framing me.”

“Calm down, Neal. Just sit down. Don´t let me call an orderly.”

“No, but I need to understand, I would never hurt anyone.”

“Everybody has a breaking point. Maybe Peter said something to you that provoked you.”

Neal stared at the doctor and realized that he looked different. Neal couldn´t pinpoint what was different. Neal backed away from the doctor. He realized he was talking to him, but he couldn´t really make out the words. Suddenly a second person entered the room and to his horror he recognized Sergei in the orderly´s uniform.

Both men approached him and Neal slowly backed away until he was stuck in the corner of the room.

“What do you want from me?” Neal pleaded.

“Nothing Neal, we don´t want anything from you.”

The world seemed to transform itself right in front of Neal´s eyes. The orderly wasn´t Sergei anymore, but merged into Peter. Neal tentatively reached out. “Peter…?”

But the moment the orderly could grab his wrist, he was pushed against the wall and Neal started struggling vigorously. He was subdued and pushed to the ground and soon after, he felt a sting and warmth spreading through his body.


	6. Contact

Peter called Homeland security and asked if Sergei had entered the country in the last three months. His request came back negative, but he asked the agent to check again with biometric check. The other agent promised to undertake a new search and inform Peter about the results.

When his phone played the X-files tune, he knew who was calling him.

“What did you find out?”

“Where can we meet?”

“In front of the Met in one hour?”

“OK.”

 

Peter was early and walked up to one of the hot dog stands and ordered a chilly dog.

“One day your arteries are going to clog, you know that don´t you?” a voice behind Peter said.

“Hi Mozzie, I haven´t eaten yet. What do you find out?” Peter took a bite out of the bun.

“Sergei is back in the country.”

Peter choked in his hot dog and started couching.

“What?” he wheezed.

“My contacts at the Canadian border told me that he came into the country three weeks ago. He entered under the name Teymur Apatovskaya.”

“That is great Mozzie. I will get right to it.”

Peter tossed the remainder of his hot dog in a bin and when he turned around, Mozzie was gone. Peter smiled, how they did it every time was beyond him. He immediately took his phone out and called his contact at Homeland.

Within 15 minutes he had conformation that a Teymur Apatovskaya had entered the United States, three weeks ago. Peter asked to see if security footage was available of the entry, but it was unlikely as he had entered the United States by car as a Canadian citizen.

Nevertheless, peter asked to check all leads out on the man. He called the office and informed his team about Sergei. He told them to put a BOLO out on the man and all his aliases.

His gut told him they were in big trouble. He needed to find Neal as soon as possible. Sergei would never let Neal live, and he would want revenge. He needed to find Neal, but where did he start?

 

* *  *

 

The answer came sooner than Peter would have wanted. He was sleeping when his phone buzzed. Having spent all night trying to find a break in Neal´s case, Peter was so tired that he had forgotten to take his phone out of his suit pocket which was still downstairs.

By the time he had reached it, it had stopped ringing and there was only a missed call message from an unknown blocked number.

Peter swore under his breath. He quickly ran back upstairs, got dressed, gave El a kiss and left for the office. On his way, he had called Jones to meet him in the office.

They were able to trace the call to a number, but it turned out to be a burner phone. Peter could hit himself for not answer the phone quicker or taking the phone with him upstairs. But it was no use crying over spilled milk. They needed to wait until the caller would try again.

 

* *  *

 Neal hated waking up like this. He resented the restraints that kept him immobile on the bed. He was wondering if it was even legal to keep him restrained this long. He would address it next time he saw his doctor.

He wasn´t feeling well, but then again, Peter was in a coma, he was probably feeling worse than Neal. No, he didn´t hurt Peter, he was sure of it. Wasn´t he? Peter had said things before that had enraged him. He went after Fowler with a gun when he thought he had killed Kate. And what had doctor Summers called him, a sociopath? Maybe he was like a doctor Jekyll and mister Hyde.  NO! He had never used violence  before. Well, not real violence.

Neal was woken from his thinking when the door opened and the orderly came in.

“You again? Do you ever go off shift?” Neal noticed.

“I´m here to give you your medicine and breakfast.”

The orderly placed the breakfast tray on the table. It seemed to exist out of some protein shake and a bottle of water. Next to it was a cup with three pills.

“Are we going to be difficult or…?”

“No, I will take the pills.” Neal said defeated. “When will the doctor be here?”

“I don´t know.”

The orderly held out a pill and Neal swallowed it with some water he was fed with a straw. When all three pills were gone, the orderly had checked, he sat down and waited. But it didn´t take Neal long to start giggling.

“Ready for breakfast?”

“As ready as I will ever be.” Neal sing songed happily. The orderly unfastened his restraints and led Neal up to the table, where he placed a straw in the shake and guided Neal´s head toward it when he didn´t make any attempt to start drinking.

There was one moment when Neal that he needed to do something, but he couldn´t really grasp what that was, before he was distracted by the bunnies on the floor. He reached for them to pet them, but the orderly called out his name and he lazily shifted his gaze from the bunnies back to the man in front of him. He was snapping his fingers.

“Drink, Neal.”

Of course, he was having breakfast. Wait, didn´t he plan to escape? Escape from what, exactly? Oh hi, kitty, where did you come from? Neal shook his head, he needed to focus. Focus on what? He didn´t seem to be able to pull his thoughts together.

Neal didn´t see the man walk up to the door and starting a conversation with the man outside in the hallway. He also didn´t notice that the shake he was having was laced as well.

Suddenly the kitten who sat in front to him changed in something vicious with big sharp teeth. He jumped up and back away until he was with his back to the wall. His heart was pounding and his mouth went dry.The bunnies were gone and out of nowhere there were these rats coming towards them, but they were no normal rats, they had red, glowing eyes and big sharp teeth. When the first one, bit his bare foot, he started screaming and kicking it. He needed to get away from them, so he scanned the room for a way out, but there was nothing, so he ran towards the room and started hitting it. When it opened, he pushed himself out, but was stopped when he walked into someone. The someone grabbed him and he begged them to protect him.

“It´s OK, Neal, there is nothing there, see?”

When Neal glanced back, the rats were gone. He carefully walked back into the room to verify there was nothing. He checked under the bed and behind the door.

“Please, I don´t want to stay here.” He said in a small voice.

“Neal, let´s talk about this. Why don´t you want to stay in the room?”

“There are butterflies and bunnies…”

“That is nice.”

“But just now there were rats.”

“Neal, Neal, please look at me. You do know that there are no animals allowed in the hospital, right?”

Neal thought about it and it made sense. So he gave a faltering nod.

“Good, no, let´s go in and see. OK?”

Again, a nod. The doctor pushed Neal back inside the room.

“Why is there a man in the room?”

“Neal, there is no man in the room.”

“Yes, there he is lying on the table, wait, I recognize the suit.”

Neal sprinted forward and bent over the table.

“Peter, Peter, wake up, come on, wake up.”

Neal kept shaking Peter but he wouldn´t wake up. When Neal studied him, he realized that Peter wasn´t breathing. And that there was blood everywhere. He peered down and gasped when he saw all the blood on himself. He started screaming and back up, until he could curl up on his bed where he started sobbing and rocking himself.

“I didn´t mean to do it!”

“Neal?”

“Fix him, I …”

“Neal, you killed agent Burke, didn´t you?”

Neal started up in shock.

“Yes, I killed Peter.”


	7. Rescuing Neal Caffrey

The next contact was during work hours. Peter had gone out to grab a bite to eat when he was called by an unknown number.

“Burke.”

“Hallo Peter, you already know I am back, so let´s cut to the crap. I must say I am surprised that you still haven´t found your little pet. No need to try and trace this call. So, what am I going to do with you? Oh, well, I will think of something, maybe I can entertain myself with that gorgeous wife of yours, she looks so pretty in that blue dress.”

Before Peter could respond the line had disconnected. He immediately ran back to his car while calling Elizabeth.

_“Peter?”_

“El, where are you?”

“ _I´m at Russian tearoom for a party we are hosting.”_

“Look for people you know, really know, not someone you just met. Stay together and try to find a room that you can lock yourself in. I will have police officers meet you. Do not open the door until I am there and stay on the phone.”

“ _Peter, you are scaring me_.”

Peter could hear El calling out to her personnel and then there was some bustling.

_“Peter? We are in a bathroom that can be locked from the inside.”_

“OK, stay there, do not open the door, do you understand me?”

“ _Yes, Peter, what´s going on?_ ”

“I will explain later.”

Peter had reached his car. Slammed the portable emergency lights on top of the roof and hurried through the traffic of Manhattan. Luckily it was not busy on Lafayette and Park Avenue. When he pulled up before the restaurant, he left the lights on, threw his FBI plaque in front of the windshield and hurried inside.

“El, I have arrived. You can come out now.”

The door was opened by one of El´s male employees. Peter gave him his most reassuring smile, he hoped.

“It´s OK, Frank, I´m here. EL?”

“Peter?” El came out of the door. “What is going on?”

Peter took her into a bear hug.

“Nothing, probably, but Sergei called me and threatened you.”

“Sergei?”

“Yes, Jones and Diana will guard you, they will bring you to one of our safehouses. I will be join you there tonight, OK?”

“OK…” she said hesitantly before Peter escorted her to one of the waiting FBI vehicles.

 

* *  *

 

When Peter arrived in the office, he called in all his senior agents together in the conference room. Rice and Ruiz walked in and Peter looked at them with raised eyebrows.

“We heard Caffrey is missing? How can we help?”

“Thanks.” Peter said before turning towards the other agents.

“We have conformation who took Neal. His name is Sergei Kozlov. He was arrested by us two years ago, but escaped and fled back to Russia. As some of you know, My CI Neal Caffrey and I were kidnapped by him and taken to Russia.”

“How are you certain it is the same man?”

“He called me earlier, threatening my wife and myself. This man takes things serious and he makes them personal. So be careful. He also told me he had Neal. The call came from a burner and we were not able to locate the location. Hopefully he will contact me again soon.”

At that exact moment, there was a ding on his phone, indicating he had a new message. Peter glanced at his phone and saw the title: I GUESS YOU WILL WANT TO SEE THIS…

“Simon, he contacted me by mail. It is probably proof of life.”

Simon took Peter´s telephone and plugged it into his laptop. He started typing and Peter and the rest of the team anxiously waited.

“I can´t get a quick fix, he is bouncing this thing around, he is using some Russian server I guess. I can find out where it came from, but it will take me some time. Do you want to see the message? It contains a video file.”

Peter was in doubt, would he take it in his office to watch the video in private or show what this monster was capable off to the team? The movie would not be pretty; probably a way to show what he had been or was doing to Neal to get under his skin.

“Put it on the screen.”

Simon transferred the file to the main screen. First there was static, and then suddenly a room came into view. It was a white room, harshly lit, there was a steel framed bed with restraints in the corner and a table and two chairs in the middle of the room. On the table lay what appeared to be a dummy.

Suddenly Neal stumbled into the room. He was scanning the room wildly and the started talking to a person outside the view of the camera.

“Why is there a man in the room?”

The man answered that there was no man in the room.

“Yes, there, he is lying on the table, wait, I recognize the suit.”

Peter could hear the uncertainty and the fear radiating from his voice. They could see Neal sprinting forward and bending over the table, shaking the dummy.

“Peter, Peter, wake up, come on, wake up.”

Peter´s heart almost broke when he heard the rawness in Neal´s voice, the grief and sorrow. It seemed that Neal suddenly realized something and then he glanced down his body and he started screaming. He backed away from the table up to the bed and curled up on it. It was heart wrenching to see Neal breaking down and starting to sob.

“I didn´t mean to do it!”

The unknown man addressed him. “Neal?”

“Fix him, I …”

Whatever the man said next, made the room freeze.

“Neal, you killed agent Burke, didn´t you?”

Neal started up to the man in shock. Now that he was looking towards the camera it was clear he was heavily drugged. It took Neal a moment to let the words sink in.

“Yes, I killed Peter.” The devastation that was spoken in those words made the agents swallow.

When Simon stopped the movie, the room was completely silent. All the agents were starring at the screen or towards Peter.

Peter swallowed before speaking.

“OK, listen up, this is only proof that we need to find Neal, now, Sergei has had Neal for four days and see what damage he has done. Simon, make the movie available to the team. All of you, watch it and see if you notice anything that can help us.”

 

* *  *

 

“Neal?”

No reaction. Sergei walked into the room.

“Neal? Answer me please.”

Neal was curled up as much as the restraints let him. He had told his men to put the restraints on, but with long lines attached to the bed. He could see Neal breathing, but it was obvious he was not there with them. He smiled. This one was broken… on to the next one.

“Give him his a dose now, when I come back with burke, you can give the second one. I´m interested to see what Burke will do when he sees his partner die in front of him.”

The orderly picked up the syringe, searched for a vein and injected the contents.

 


	8. The End?

“Agent Burke! Agent Burke!”

“What is it, Jordan?”

“I watched the video like you told us and I think I recognize the building.”

Peter jumped up. “You´re sure?”

“No, but I think it is an old abandoned building near the old Borms building .

“How do you recognize it?”

“Well, the windows, look at the shape. I am fairly sure that I once visited the place with some friends.”

“Ok, assemble a team. I want SWAT to go with us. Sergei is dangerous.”

“Yes sir.”

 

* *  *

 

The grief was all overwhelming. Every time Neal woke up, the hurt hit him with the force of a freight train. He had no more tears left, he felt completely numb and empty. He just wanted to sleep and forget. The bunnies were also back. Neal curled up further. Something pulled his wrists and ankles but he managed to get more or less comfortable and let his mind wander off.

Someone called his name, but he was just too tired to respond. He felt a sting in his thigh and then the world seemed to float away. The bunnies became fluffier. And he was floating on a white cloud. The feeling was fantastic and he started giggling, this was fun, so much better than the place he was before. He let his eyes drift shut.

 

* *  *

 

Once a SWAT team was assembled, the team drove to the building agent Jordan had pointed out. When they arrived, it was eerie quiet. SWAT moved in to sweep the place and Peter and his team were outside listening in on the conversations between the SWAT members. Room after room was cleared and Peter was convinced that they had the wrong building.

Suddenly they heard shouting and gunfire and Peter wanted to storm into the building but was held back by Diana.

“Let them do their job Peter!”

Peter sighed and looked Diana in the eye. She was of course right. There was no need to endanger themselves. SWAT had everything under control.

Once the SWAT leader gave the all clear sign, Peter and Diana stormed into the building. They encountered SWAT members who pointed to a room and Peter stopped dead in his tracks when he entered the room. The room was furnished like a hospital room, a shrill contrast against the abandoned building in which the room was located. Someone had taken great care and a whole lot of money to reconstruct a hospital room.

The SWAT leader was crouching next to a bed, so the person lying in it was obscured from view. There was a man dressed as an orderly lying a couple of yards away, his gun a bit further. Someone was checking for a pulse, but shook his head.

Peter walked up to the bed and gasped. Neal was on his side, medical restraints on his wrists and ankles. His eyes were closed but he seemed to be breathing.

“How is he?” Peter asked concerned, kneeling next to Neal. He looked so pale.

“He is breathing, although too slow to my taste. EMT´s are on their way.” The man answered.

“Neal?” Neal?” Peter gently shook Neal, but he didn´t react, he was completely limp.

“I will stay with him while we wait for the EMT´s.” Peter stated. The man got up and Peter tried to remember his name. Agent Andersson, yeah, that was it “Thanks for staying with him, Andersson.”

“No problem, he is one of ours.” He said clapping a hand on Peter´s shoulder while getting up.

Peter kept talking to Neal, who seemed to breathe slower and slower. Peter held Neal´s hand and kept talking to him, until someone cleared their throat behind him and asked him to step back. When Peter turned around, an EMT was standing behind him. The other one was already deploying a gurney and opening the emergency kits they were carrying;

Peter stepped back and one of the EMT´s started checking over Neal ´s vitals, all the while calling out numbers and information to his colleague.

“Get the intubation kit, please.”

The team worked quickly and efficiently to intubate Neal. Once they were done, they loaded Neal onto the gurney and prepared to move out.

“How is he?”

“He doesn´t seem to be wounded. However, his respiration is depressed, probably due to drugs, there is nothing I can do here in the field. He is stable for the moment, but I want to get him to hospital as soon as possible.”

Peter stepped to the side to let them leave. He followed the gurney in concern, trying to keep an eye on Neal. Once they loaded him into the ambulance, they drove of and Diana called out to him, to get in the car.  

 

* *  *

 

Once Peter and Diana arrived at the hospital, Neal was already taken into an examination room. They were asked to wait in the waiting room and fill in the paperwork. About an hour after they arrived, a doctor came out.

“Family for Caffrey?”

“That´s us!” Peter called out while practically jumping out of his chair.

“My name is Doctor Hernandez. I was on call in the ER and treated Neal when he arrived here. He seems in relative good health, a bit dehydrated and malnourished. The main problem was his respiration. We are now waiting for a room and we are monitoring him closely.”

“Neal was kept hostage and we can assume he was drugged.” Peter stated.

“The EMT´s informed us and it concurs with our findings, we did blood tests and we got confirmation of drugging, that is what depressed his breathing, but as I said, we are keeping a close eye on him.”

“Can we see him?”

“Yes, one of you can come with me. I have to ask to wait for other visitors until mister Caffrey is settled in a room. Which will be as soon as possible.”

“You go, boss. I am going back to the office, to take care of things.”

“Thanks Diana.”

Peter followed the doctor behind the doors of the ER. Finally, they arrived at the cubicle where Neal was located. Neal was pale and the mask over his face was disconcerting. Neal looked so fragile. He took Neal´s hand in his.

“Neal?”

But Neal didn´t reacted and Peter looked up at the doctor.

“Has he regained consciousness?”

“No, he hasn´t, we don´t want to shock his system, so we are monitoring him as the drugs pass his system.”

“Can I stay with him, I don´t want him to wake up without a familiar face. I want him to know he is safe.”

“I guess we can make an accepting in this case.”

“Thank you.”

Peter stood next to the bed until two orderlies walked up to the bed and explained that Neal was assigned a room and they were here to move him.

 

* *  *

 

Sergei was furious. How the hell had Peter Burke figured out where to find Neal. This was not the way it was supposed to go, he needed to get his revenge. He stopped pacing and watched as Peter Burke came out of the building, walking behind the gurney. He needed to find out where they would take Neal Caffrey. So his best chance was to follow them. He eventually tracked them to Lennox Hill.

It wasn´t really difficult to walk into one of the locker rooms and get a hospital uniform. He changed and walked into the ER like he belonged there. It didn´t take long to find Neal in one of the cubicles. He walked up to one of the nurses.

“Hi, I´m taking care of mister Caffrey, do you have a room for him already?” He smiled at the nurse.

It was very busy and she didn´t even look up. “Yes, it will be room 423, but we are waiting for his transfer.”

“Thanks.” Sergei walked back out of the ER and walked up to the fourth floor where he located a staff coffee machine and took a cup, patiently waiting for his victims.

 

* *  *

 

Peter followed Neal´s bed while it was being wheeled towards the fourth floor. It didn´t take more than five minutes to settle Neal into the room, the portable oxygen changed out for the in-room system. Neal looked peaceful and Peter settled in for the long haul.

He must have nodded off somewhere during the evening as he startled awake when something pricked in his arm. His eyes flew open and in front of him stood a man, he wanted to jump up, but whatever was injected worked fast and he had no real control of his muscles. He wanted to shout, but his tongue didn´t respond to his brain and nothing came out. He blinked to clear his vision and realized it was Sergei.

“What is the matter, agent Burke, cat got your tongue? No need to try, the drug I used will make sure, you stay where you are and that you are not making any sounds.”

Peter could only stare as Sergei walked over to Neal´s bed and started shaking him. It was almost gentile.

“Hey Neal, wake up.”

When he didn´t get a response, he took a pouch out of his pocket and opened it. Peter´s heart dropped when he saw that it was a syringe.

“No stress, agent Burke, just something to wake our boy up.”

He carefully injected it in the IV with the saline and waited a moment for it to enter Neal´s bloodstream.

“Neal, come on, wake up.”

Neal started moving and after a couple of minutes his eyes fluttered open.

“That is it, Neal, open your eyes for me.”

Neal didn´t seem to notice anyone else in the room, because he kept staring at Sergei.

“Neal, how are you feeling?”

It took a moment for Neal to get his bearings, but when reality sunk in, he started crying.

“It´s OK, Neal, I know you didn´t mean to kill agent Burke.”

Neal curled in onto himself, sobbing.

Peter could only watch in horror as Sergei kept taunting Neal. He did his best to attract attention away from Neal, but it was in vain until he realized that Sergei was doing this to torment him and not Neal. Why didn´t anyone come in and check on them?

“Agent Burke, are you still paying attention? I have here a nasty concoction; Neal has already gotten a dose. But rest assured, the first dose is never the problem, however, a second dose in a short time span… a different story all together. SO…, let´s see what will happen.”

Peter could only stare as Sergei injected the content of a second syringe in Neal´s IV.

 

 


	9. The end

First, nothing happened, Neal was relaxing more, the sobbing had stopped and his breathing evened out. Sergei, carefully turned Neal, so Neal was facing Peter. It was almost intimate and Peter´s blood boiled. Neal´s face was starting to relax, due to whatever was in his system. But that didn´t take long. Suddenly Neal´s eyes went open wide, and his face contorted in fear. He kept staring at Peter without recognizing him. It didn´t take long before he tried to get out of the bed, but Sergei was standing next to the bed and made sure, Neal couldn´t back out. It was obvious that Neal was experiencing a bad trip, Peter could only stare at the scene developing, unable to do anything. He was locked in his own personal hell. Seeing someone he cared about being hurt and unable to stop it.

Neal started tossing and fighting Sergei to get away what only he saw. The fighting stopped when Neal stared convulsing. Peter could see Neal tense up and started shaking uncontrollable and Sergei looking with a malicious grin at Peter, who couldn´t do anything.

The convulsions stopped as soon as they had started and Neal lay limp in the bed.

“Your boy isn´t doing well, agent Burke, his breathing is getting labored and soon his hart is going to give out or he will stroke out.”

Peter could see that Sergei prepared another syringe, when the door opened.

Sergei tuned around in surprise when someone entered the room. Peter couldn’t see who it was as he was unable to turn his head, but his breath stopped when he heard whose voice it was.

“I´m sorry, who are you?” a female voice asked.

“I´m a friend of Neal.”

“Oh, And your name?”

“My name is Alexander.”

“Hi, my name is Diana, I´m Neal´s girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you.”

It wouldn´t be too hard to overtake this woman. Who would have thought Neal would have a black girlfriend? Sergei let the syringe on the side table and moved closer to her so he could grab her. What he didn´t anticipate is that she was a very capable FBI agent, and as soon as he was out of reach of the syringe, she drew her gun and pointing it at him. She slowly backed away and pushed the emergency button on the wall.  Only now did she see Peter, who was slumped in the chair.

“Peter, are you alright?”

There was no reaction. But she had to keep her eyes on Sergei, so Peter would have to wait until medical assistance arrived.

“Turn on your stomach, hands behind you head. DO IT, NOW!”

Sergei assumed the position. At that moment a nurse entered the room. Diana called out to her to warn security and a doctor. The nurse left immediately and it only took a couple of minutes for security to arrive. Diana cuffed Sergei and took her phone out to call Jones to pick Sergei up. She then turned to the doctors and nurse that were working on both men.

The staff that was taking care of Neal seemed more frantic than the ones, who were with Peter, but still Peter was placed in a bed and an oxygen mask was placed over his face.

Neal was more actively ventilated and Diana heard terms like pinpoint pupils, non responsive, depressed breathing. She realized that Neal was in way worse shape than Peter.

She walked over to Sergei and demanded to know what he had given Neal, but he didn´t speak. Luckily one of the nurses found the syringe in the trash bin and they have it analyzed immediately.

Diana and security stayed focused until the FBI came to pick up Sergei to take him into custody. It was after they had taken Sergei away that Diana went in search for Peter and Neal; who had been taken out of the room. Peter was located soon enough, he was doing better and drugs were administered to counteract what was given to him, so Peter was able to move again, but he seemed asleep at the moment. He must have heard her come in because he tried to open his eyes and look at her.

“Rest Peter, I called Elizabeth and she is picked up by Blake and on her way here. Sleep, you are safe, I´m here.”

That earned her a tired smile and soon his eyes drooped close again. She then walked back to the nursing station to find information on Neal. She was told he was brought up to ICU just in case, as he seemed to have a bad reaction to whatever drugs were given to him and they just wanted to make sure they were able to stabilize Neal enough while they waited for the results of the lab tests. She was directed to the ICU ward to ask for more information.

While she walked up to the elevators, Elizabeth exited one.

“Diana!”

“Oh hi Elizabeth. Please come with me, I will show you were Peter is.”

“Is he OK?”

“He is fine, just a bit sleepy from the drugs he was given, but the doctors said he would be fine.”

Diana opened the door for Elizabeth who almost ran in and took Peter´s hand, startling him awake. His gaze turned from confusion to gratitude.

“I will leave you two alone, I´m going to check up on Neal.”

“Thanks Diana.”

“No thanks.”

When Diana arrived at the ward, a nurse approached her.

“Agent Berrigan?”

“Yes.”

“Belinda told me you were looking for Mister Caffrey, you can see him if you want. The lab tests came back and Neal has been given medication to counteract the effects. He is still out of it, but I guess he will appreciate a familiar person in the room.”

“Why is he kept on the ICU ward?”

“We just want to be prepared for any emergency if it would arise. When Mister Caffrey is more awake and aware he will be transferred back to a normal room.”

When they arrived at Neal´s bed, Diana was a bit shocked. Neal was pale and his hair is plastered to his face. He seemed to be running a fever. Every now and then, his limps jerked. The oxygen mask was still in place.

“That is normal; it will go away once the drugs are out of his system.” The nurse explained.

Diana took place in the chair next to Neal´s bed and placed her hand on his arm. She must have fallen asleep, because she jerked awake when Neal let out a sob.

“Shhh… You are OK, You are safe and everything is going to be OK.” Diana tried to give Neal some comfort, but his sobbing didn´t stop.

“Neal, come on, tell me what is wrong. Maybe I can help. Are you hurting?”

“Is Elizabeth here?”

“Yes, she is with Peter.”

That didn´t seem to comfort Neal, who started curling in on himself, his vision seemed to glaze over and Diana knew something was wrong. She walked out to find a nurse and explained what had happened. When she came in, Neal didn´t acknowledge her anymore.

“Neal? Neal, I need you to tell me what is wrong. Are you not feeling well?”

Suddenly it dawned on Diana, maybe Neal hadn´t realized Pete was alive. Maybe Sergei had further taunted him like he had done before.

“Neal, listen to me. When I say Elizabeth is with Peter, I mean, she is with Peter, he is fine. He is downstairs.”

But Neal didn´t respond at all. The doctor came in and quickly examined Neal and Diana explained what she suspected. The doctor gave Neal a mild sedative and called in a psych evaluation.

Now that Neal was sedated, Diana left the room and walked back to Peter, who was lying on his side with his eyes closed, mostly listening to Elizabeth talking.

“Peter, I need your help. Neal woke and doesn´t realize you are alive. He is still locked in the belief that you are dead.”

Peter groggily tried to get up. “Get me to him. Nobody told him I am OK?”

“Yes I did, but he is still too far gone to realize, I guess if he can see you, it will sink in. But stay put. I will ask the orderlies to transfer you.”

Diana made the arrangements and it was decided to transfer Peter in is bed as the doctor was still not completely sure there wouldn´t be any side effects from the muscle relaxants.

When they arrived in Neal´s room, Neal was more relaxed and seemed to be asleep, but the nurse shook her head to indicate that he wasn´t.

“Neal? It´s me, Peter. We are safe. I AM SAFE. Do you hear me?”

Neal didn´t give any indication that he heard Peter.

Both Peter and El stood on opposite sides of the bed and placed their hands on his arm and chest. El started gently carting her fingers through his hair.

“Neal? Sweetie?”

Neal slowly opened his eyes and looked at El and she could see the tears building in his eyes.

“No, sweetie, don´t cry, Peter is fine; he is standing next to you.”

It all didn´t reach Neal´s traumatized brain and the tears suddenly spilled over.

El and Peter´s heart broke.

Peter gently took Neal´s face in his hand and slowly turned it, so he was facing Peter.

“I´m so sorry.” Neal sobbed.

“Whatever are you sorry for?” Peter asked in surprise.

“That I let you die. I really tried, you must believe me, I really tried to safe you. But you were already dead.”

Peter looked at the doctor for clues on what to do, but the doctor was already preparing a syringe.

“I´m going to sedate him until most of the drugs have left his system. This isn´t working, he is too traumatized and the drugs keep muddling his brain and memory.”

“If you think that is best.” Peter said hesitantly

“Neal you are going to be OK, they are going to make you sleep, but I will stay with you, OK.”

Neal slowly nodded and while the doctor injected the sedative into Neal´s IV line, everybody could see Neal´s body slowly relax until it was completely limb.

 

* *  *

 

The next time Neal woke up, he remembered being awake before, but also the grief that hit him like a freight train every single time. But he was lying against someone. The scent was familiar and he opened his eyes to check if his mind was playing tricks on him.

“Peter?” He whispered.

Peter must be sleeping light, because he stirred almost immediately.

“Neal?” he asked tentatively.

“Peter?”

“Yes, it´s me, It really is me. How are you feeling?”

“Thirsty.”

“I can help with that, but you will need to let go of my arm.

Neal only now realized that he was lying in Peter´s arms, his head resting on one arm. That must hurt, he thought when he saw that Peter grimaced moving his arm and the blood rushing back in the limb.

Peter sat up and got of the bed, to pick up a cup and pouring some water in it.

Neal stared at him, this wasn´t happening. Wasn´t Peter dead?

“Breathe Neal. I´m not dead.”

“But…” Peter handed Neal the cup and their hands brushed together. Neal took the cup with his hands were shaking and Peter guided his hands towards his mouth.

“Slow sips, we don´t want you nauseated. You are not thirsty, the IV gave you plenty of fluids, it’s just your mouth that is dry.”

Neal nodded and took slow sips before Peter took the cup away again. Neal couldn´t look away from Peter. Peter noticed and took Neal´s hand in his.

“Do you believe I am real?”

“I guess.” Neal admitted reluctantly.

“Sergei drugged you Neal, I was never there. It was all in your mind.”

That made sense. So the bunnies were also not there, which seemed logic. Neal just nodded.

“The doctors explained that as the drugs leave your system; your brain will also be better able to distinct real from hallucinations.”

“What happened to Sergei?”

“He is in our custody. He is being charged with two accounts of aggravated assault and attempted murder. He is going away for a very long time.”

Peter could see Neal started losing focus again so he just patted Neal on the shoulder.

“Rest, I will be here when you wake up and we will see how to move on. We will. You will. It will be OK.”

And Neal believed him. They would be OK. He would be OK.

 


End file.
